European investors poured $17bn into deeptech startups on the continent last year, according to Dealroom data. And while that’s down on 2021’s record-breaking $22.8bn, it’s still a big leap from the $11.6bn and $11.1bn invested in 2019 and 2020, respectively.
And, if you take megarounds (deals exceeding $250m) out of the equation 2022 only saw a slight drop-off, with $14.9bn being invested, compared to $15.5bn the year before.
Deeptech’s resilience over a tough year isn't surprising. As startup valuations started to tumble last year, deeptech investor Marcin Hejka from OTB Ventures told Sifted that deals in the space weren’t being negatively affected, and that “the deeptech space, especially early deeptech, is probably the least impacted part of the venture capital market. I would even say that early-stage deeptech investing is actually anti-cyclical.”
So, which European funds have backed the most European deeptech startups since the beginning of 2022?
1/ The European Innovation Council
HQ: Brussels
Fund focus: The EU’s vehicle for investing in impact technologies and research projects, from university research, to seed stage startups and larger scaleups
Number of investments into European deeptech startups since January 2022: 71
2/ Bpifrance
HQ: Paris
Fund focus: France’s state-owned investment bank and sovereign wealth fund that invests across a wide range of tech sectors and stages
Number of investments into European deeptech startups since January 2022: 23
3/ High-Tech Gründerfonds
HQ: Berlin
Fund focus: Early-stage fund investing in software, medtech and climate tech
Number of investments into European deeptech startups since January 2022: 20
4/ Octopus Ventures
HQ: London
Fund focus: Multi-stage fund investing across deeptech, fintech, healthtech and consumer
Number of investments into European deeptech startups since January 2022: 16
5/ Verve Ventures
HQ: Zurich
Fund focus: Deeptech fund with a focus on healthtech, mobility and AI
Number of investments into European deeptech startups since January 2022: 15
=6/ btov Partners
HQ: Berlin
Fund focus: Invests in European seed and Series A startups with a focus on AI, digital health, fintech, logistics, B2B SaaS and marketplaces
Number of investments into European deeptech startups since January 2022: 13
=6/ IQ Capital
HQ: Cambridge
Fund focus: Deeptech fund focused on seed to growth stages, investing in AI, data science, Internet of Things (IoT) and more
Number of investments into European deeptech startups since January 2022: 13
=8/ Invest-NL
HQ: Amsterdam
Fund focus: Dutch government fund that invests in startups across agritech, biotech, life sciences and deeptech
Number of investments into European deeptech startups since January 2022: 12
=8/ Oxford Science Enterprises
HQ: Oxford
Fund focus: Fund focusing on university spinouts in life sciences, healthtech and deeptech
Number of investments into European deeptech startups since January 2022: 12
=10/ EIT InnoEnergy
HQ: Eindhoven
Fund focus: EU body backing startups working on solutions for the green energy transition
Number of investments into European deeptech startups since January 2022: 11
=10/ Amadeus Capital Partners
HQ: Cambridge
Fund focus: Fund backing deeptech startups since 1990 across AI, cyber security, healthtech media, fintech, semiconductors and software
Number of investments into European deeptech startups since January 2022: 11
👉 Read: Europe's most active deeptech investors | 2021
